Smash and Dash Review

Smash and Dash is a game title that delivers: in the game, you smash up guns that fire blue bullets at you, while you dash away to not get hit by those bullets. Smash and Dash is played on a grid, and strongly reminds us of another great game: Geometry Wars, only now on a smaller scale.

The little flying machine you control can smash every enemy on screen, but is extremely vulnerable when it comes to bullets. Only one of those is needed to knock you out, what makes the game really challenging to experience arcade gamers. It’s really fast-paced and it suits the game very well. And the controls are very smooth, too. On screen, there is an analog stick that directly controls your flying vehicle and the response of that stick is utterly fast. It has to be: a fast-paced game where you need to rely on your own skill, won’t benefit from anything other than that.

Also: when you remove your finger from the bottom half of the screen, where the analog stick is, the game will pause automatically. So if you want to change thumbs, and trust me: you’ll want to do that, the game offers you that option without letting you think you can loose while doing that. It is a nice little touch, one of which you can see that the game designers are gamers themselves and know what is necessary to not ruin your game.

However, the game takes a very long time to load up: somewhere between eighteen and twenty-three seconds. But why? The game doesn’t look that good to begin with. It has a minimalistic style, and while it suits the game, it’s unclear why it takes this long to load up a quick round. And there is also a downsize to the fast-paced gameplay. You will die very often if you are not careful. You will get those few points you’ve scattered, but it will take a long time to get one of those awesome upgrades. And those upgrades really makes the game better and a lot more fun to play.

Smash and Dash is a fast-paced game with a minimalistic feeling and gameplay you sometimes have to endure. It can be really exhausting to die this often before you can get those awesome upgrades, but it mostly relies on your own skill. You can’t blame the controls on this one, because they are flawless.

Smash and Dash Review Rundown

7.0

Graphics/Sound - Graphics are functional, but not impressive.

8.5

Controls - Controls are very smooth and suits the game.

8.5

Gameplay - The gameplay is easy to learn, but hard to master.

8.0

Replay Value - You can play this game over and over because of the upgrade system.

8.0

Overall - An addictive game, but it requires patience to get maximum fun.